Das jüdische Buch im Dritten Reich. II. Salman Schocken und sein Verlag by Volker DahmReview by: Harry ZohnThe Library Quarterly, Vol. 53, No. 1 (Jan., 1983), pp. 56-58Published by: The University of Chicago PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4307577 .

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REVIEWS

Dasju-dische Buch im Dritten Reich. II. Salman Schocken und sein Verlag. By VOLKER DAHM. Archiv fur Geschichte des Buchwesens, vol. 20, nos. 1-2; vol. 22, nos. 2-5. Frankfurt am Main: Buchhandler Vereinigung, 1979, 1981. Cols. 1-299 (vol. 20); cols. 301-916 (vol. 22). ISSN 0066-6327.

A few years ago, when I was working on the translation of two autobiographical works by Gershom (Gerhard) Scholem, it occurred to me that it might make sense to produce a triple biography entitled Scholem, Schocken, Schoeps. Apart from reflecting my penchant for punning, such a book would present a typology of German Jewry in the last decades of the tragically brief but highly fecund German-Jewish cultural symbiosis (though Jews lived on German soil for a thousand years). Despairing of the possibility of leading a truly Jewish life in Germany, Scholem broke away from his assimilated family and emigrated to Palestine when he was only in his middle twenties. At the other end of the spectrum was another distinguished scholar, Hans-Joachim Schoeps, who com- bined studies in Jewish history and religious philosophy with the pursuits of a "professional Prussian" and as a young man was a leader of the Verband nationaldeutscherJuden, believing thatJews should be super-patriots "bereit fur Deutschland" and, without abandoning the faith of their fathers, could accom- modate themselves even to the new order of the Third Reich. While this repre- sented an extremist position, German Jews continued to hope against hope until the "Crystal Night" of November 1938, when the fiery handwriting on many a crumbling synagogue wall revealed the true face of Nazism.

Salman Schocken was closer to Scholem than to Schoeps. The largely self- taught merchant, bibliophile, philanthropist, and proponent of cultural Zionism was shaped by the traditions of Eastern Jewry. In 1904 he opened his first department store; at the outbreak of World War I he and his two brothers owned eight additional stores, and by 1933 the chain comprised thirty stores in all parts of Germany. Chaim Weizmann was among those who noted that Schocken's commercial interests and his bibliophile and intellectual activities were all of a piece. At the celebration of his eightieth birthday in 1977 Schocken, who viewed himself as a "thinking businessman," averred that he had learned his profession not from books on merchandising or economics, but from his father, Hegel, and the Midrash.

The founding of Schocken's publishing house was not merely a response to Hitlerism. As early as World War I, when he supported Martin Buber's peri- odical Der Jude, Schocken had called for a Judaization and Hebraization of German Jewry, hoping that the community of Zionists would fulfill that func- tion. When that did not materialize, Schocken founded the Forschungsinstitut fur hebraische Dichtung in 1929 and became an early sponsor of S. Y. Agnon

Permission to reprint a book review printed in this section may be obtained only from the author.

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REVIEWS 57

(Czaczkes), later a Nobel laureate. The Schocken Verlag came into being in 1931. Schocken's personal library eventually comprised 60,000 volumes and included the largest private collection of Judaica and Hebraica as well as manu- scripts, autographs, and graphic art. As a collector Schocken was guided by his desire to trace the history of the Jewish people through their books.

In the second part of his study, Dahm presents an intellectual portrait of Salman Schocken as well as a searching analysis of his personality and varied interests. This is preceded by a perceptive discussion of the religious, intellec- tual, political, and social currents in modern German Jewry, as well as a capsule history of Zionism, with special attention to the ideological tensions between that movement and assimilationism. Dahm's study originated as a Munich disserta- tion entitled "Daspijdische Buch im Dritten Reich und der Schocken Verlag." Its first part, "Die Ausschaltung der jiidischen Autoren, Verleger und Buchhand- ler," discusses the "Aryanization" of the German book trade through the elimi- nation of Jewish authors, publishers, and book dealers. In 1937 there were still fifty-three Jewish-owned bookstores and twenty-seven Jewish publishers in Ger- many, including the Judischer Verlag, the Philo-Verlag, the Judische Buch- vereinigung (all Berlin), and the Verlag J. Kauffmann (Frankfurt a.M.) The Schocken Verlag assumed paramount importance after the Nazi accession to power, when it dedicated itself with increased urgency to the education and intellectual-spiritual sustenance of the half-million German Jews. Dahm's metic- ulously researched, well-documented, and well-illustrated study is based mainly on the archives of the Schocken Library in Jerusalem. It is an absorbing story of great poignance. Because it greatly expands and improves upon Stephen M. Poppel's article "Salman Schocken and the Schocken Verlag: A Jewish Publisher in Weimar and Nazi Germany" (Harvard Library Bulletin 21, no. 1 January 1973]: 20-49), covering every aspect of the firm (organization and management, design and production, distribution and promotion, economics, editorial prob- lems, personnel practices, readership, etc.) in satisfying detail, publication of at least parts of it in English translation would be highly desirable. The appendix, with its annotated chronological list of all Schocken publications, bibliographies, reviews, and other documents, is particularly useful.

The Schocken Verlag had an auspicious start with a distinguished list of 23 volumes, some of them (notably the works of Buber) taken over from such publishers as Jakob Hegner and Lambert Schneider. The latter, a Gentile, served as managing director and Moritz Spitzer as chief editor throughout the Schocken Verlag's existence. The house had a dual aim: to present centuries of Jewish culture in exemplary German editions and translations (with the Buber- Rosenzweig rendition of the Hebrew Bible as the nucleus) and to offer standard editions of medieval Hebrew poetry and modern Hebrew literature in the original (starting with the collected writings of Agnon). After 1933 these aims were somewhat modified: the books, issued at affordable prices, were intended to perform a supportive and pedagogical function, helping readers in difficult times to draw strength from their (hitherto often neglected) Jewish heritage.

The list of distinguished authors published by the house includes Y. Halevi, M. Mendelssohn, S. Maimon, K. Wolfskehl, L. Baeck, H. Kohn, A. Nadel, P. Amann, E. Bickermann, S. Stern, H. Cohen, M. J. bin Gorion, G. Scholem, A. Mombert, N. N. Glatzer, and L. Strauss. But despite Scholem's urging, Salman Schocken refused to publish Walter Benjamin. The firm ran afoul of the au- thorities in its efforts to publish writings on Jewish themes by such Gentile authors as A. Stifter and A. von Droste-Hulshoff. The most popular publica-

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58 THE LIBRARY QUARTERLY

tions were the inexpensive little volumes (ultimately 83) of the Schocken- Bucherei, which was intended to erect "an edifice of Jewish education," and the annual Almanach, each an anthology of lasting value. Another series, the Jud- ische Lesehefte, was meant for use in schools. The year 1937 was the firm's most successful year; almost 90,000 volumes were sold, one for every two Jewish families in Germany. In 1935 Salman Schocken bought the world rights to the works of Franz Kafka, whose collected works, edited by Max Brod and Heinz Politzer, began to appear that spring. (Curiously enough, Lambert Schneider opposed the project as having "snob appeal.") Because the Propaganda Ministry soon put Kafka and Brod on its list of "harmful and undesirable authors," the edition (including vols. 5 and 6) was henceforth issued in Prague under the imprint of Heinrich Mercy Sohn.

In the spring of 1938 the Schocken Verlag broke away from the Schocken concern and became independent; at that time Salman's son Theodor (later the head of Schocken Books, founded in New York in 1945) entered the firm as a partner. After the founding father emigrated to Palestine at the end of 1933, his other son, Gershom, became editor of Schocken's liberal newspaper Ha'aretz (Tel Aviv) the following year. In December 1938 the Nazi government ordered the closing and liquidation of the Schocken Verlag. Its inventory could finally be transported to Palestine under the so-called Haavara transfer system.

As Dahm points out, the effectiveness of the Schocken Verlag should be measured not only by its commercial success but also by its historical position, for it provided a channel and outlet for the creative energies of a critical Judaism that, since the turn of the century, had been an intellectual force between religiosity and secularism. It enabled Jews of all persuasions to define themselves as a community with a common descent, history, and culture, as well as suffering borne collectively, and it represented a final florescence of German Jewry on the eve of its destruction. Writing about the Schocken-Bucherei in a Basel newspa- per in 1936, Hermann Hesse likened its effectiveness in acquaintingJews with a heritage so rich in poetry and wit to the Germans' joyous rediscovery, more than a century earlier, of their own ancient songs and sagas. Dahm cites H. G. Adler's negative findings about the quality of Jewish life in the "model ghetto" Theresienstadt as evidence that, more often than not, persecution failed to lead to human purification and a true Jewish regeneration. In that sense, the Schoc- ken Verlag must be viewed as a case of "too little and too late." Still, in untold cases what Dahm terms the belated "German-Jewish romanticism" undoubtedly promoted spiritual resistance to Nazi persecution. The anecdote which the author places at the end of his study may be the most fitting epilogue to a noble venture. One dav in 1937 the children of one of the few Jewish families remain- ing in a small German town were huddled in a corner during a frightening thunderstorm. "Don't be afraid," said the girl to her brother. "Nothing can happen to us. Haven't we got the Good Lord, the Torah, and the little Schocken books?"

Harry Zohn, Brandeis University

Volksbibliothekare und Nationalsozialismus: Zum Verhalten fuhrender Berufsvertreter wahren-d der nationalsozialistischen Machtubernahme. By ANDREAS KErrEL. Pahl- Rugenstein Hochschulschriften Gesellschafts- und Naturwissenschaften, no. 72. Cologne: Pahl-Rugenstein Verlag, 1981. Pp. 130. DM 18. ISBN 3-7609-5072-8.

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